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GERBIL, or GERBILLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 767 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GERBIL, or GERBILLE

GERBIL, or GERBILLE , the name of a See also:

GROUP

group of small, elegant, large-eyed, See also:

JUMPING

jumping rodents typified by the See also:

North See also:

AFRICAN

African Gerbillus aegyptiacus (or gerbillus), and forming a See also:

SPECIAL

special sub-See also:

FAMILY

family, Gerbillinae, of the See also:

RAT (a word common to Teut. and Rom. languages; probably first adopted in Teut.; the ultimate origin is not known; Skeat suggests the root rad-, to scratch; cf. Ger. Ratte, Dan. rotte, Fr. rat, &c.)

rat tribe or Muridae. They are found over the See also:

DESERT

desert districts of both See also:

ASIA

Asia and See also:

Africa, and are classed in the genera Gerbillus (or See also:

PATERA

Patera), Pachyuromys, Meriones, Psammomys and Rhombomys, with further divisions into sub-genera. They have elongated See also:

HIND

hind-limbs and See also:

long hairy tails; and progress by leaps, in the same manner as jerboas, from which they differ in having five hind-toes. The cheek-See also:

TEETH (O.E. Eel); plural of tooth, O.E. top)

teeth have trans-See also:

VERSE (from Lat. versus, literally a line or furrow drawn by turning the plough, from vertere, and afterwards signifying an arrangement of syllables into feet)

verse plates of See also:

ENAMEL (formerly " amel," derived through the Fr. amail, emmll, esmail, from a Latin word smaltum, first found in a 9th-century life of Leo IV.)

enamel on the crowns; the number of such plates diminishing from three in the first tooth to one or one and a See also:

HALF

half in the third. The upper incisor teeth are generally marked by grooves. Gerbils are inhabitants of open sandy plains, where they dwell in burrows furnished with numerous exits, and containing large grass-lined See also:

chambers. The See also:

INDIAN

Indian G. indicus produces at least a dozen See also:

young at a See also:

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

birth. All are more or less completely nocturnal.

End of Article: GERBIL, or GERBILLE

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